User blog:Julia-B184/Betrayal
August 5, 2576 Gryningen Tempel, Mandalore Vera Arendal strode quietly through the Temple of Dawn, admiring the hallways, architecture, and sights from the windows as a temple guard matched her pace beside her. The sentinel held himself with a more professional air, while Vera seemed more relaxed. However, unlike her companion she had no helmet to hide that she was troubled. "Not that I'm not happy to see you again." The sentinel spoke up, his voice changed just slightly by the helmet he wore. "Because I'm glad you're here. But you seem off." "Yes, there's..." Vera sighed. "Some things have changed a bit since me and Idun last visited. And... if it's alright, I'd rather talk to you without the helmet. I want a face-to-face." The Sentinel only paused a moment before removing his helmet, settling it under his shoulder and pulling his hood back. Her son's messy red hair and beard showed itself, as well as his confused blue eyes, showing his confusion and concern for what they had to talk about that was so important. Sentinels were permitted to remove their helmets from time to time, but they were supposed to limit it. Vera knew she was making a big request. "Agdar, I..." She stepped over to the large window, looking over the ravine outside. "You remember our attempted movement. How we planned to change Mandalore. All of that. Our revolution." "Yes." Agdar nodded, standing next to his mother and looking down to her hesitantly. "What's happened?" "I don't think I can go through with it. I don't think we can go through with it." She answered quietly. "Since I last saw you, I've thought over and over, how many people would be hurt in such a movement? What if our revolution did more damage than it fixed?" Vera looked to her son. "Idun feels the same." Quietly, Agdar nodded, a mix of emotions on his face. A tiny bit of anger, some disappointment, sadness, but mostly a tired acceptance of what Vera was saying. "Then what now?" "This is for people with more pull than we do to handle. Maybe I can see if Wilson can get through to the King. Maybe I can make an appeal myself." She suggested. "You have to understand." "No, I understand." He assured her. "I might still disagree, but... I trust your judgement. This way is safer." "Alright." Vera set a hand on Agdar's shoulder gently. "Keep in touch just in case. I'll update you." Agdar nodded again. "If you need any help, let me know." Vera stopped to think about it for a moment. Agdar's word could very well mean a great deal to the King or to Slade, seeing as he'd been the one to protect the Queen of Helios years ago. "Alright." She wrapped her son in an embrace, and Agdar immediately returned it with his free arm until they finally parted. As they began to walk back down the hallway, Agdar putting his helmet and hood back onto his head. September 25, 2576 Idun sat next to Vera quietly just next to the window of the Dawn Temple, watching the rain outside pour into the ravine. They'd chosen this area as a place to meet with a political radical, or at least who they saw as one: Alvor Danielsen, someone they'd previously planned to cooperate with until things had changed. "Countesses Arendal." They heard a familiar voice, both turning to see the tall man approaching. "You wanted to speak to me about the change in plans we discussed some time ago." "Yes, Senator." Vera nodded, standing up. "I'm sorry for the rush, but... I don't know how to say this." Daniselsen waited patiently in place, though he turned to Idun as she stood up from her seat. "Senator, despite what we discussed about avoiding our previous plans for political takeover, Vera and I have reason to believe you're planning a revolution regardless." Idun got to the point. "We agreed that wasn't our plan." "It's no longer our plan." Daniselsen reminded them. "And even if I was planning a revolution - which I don't have the resources for - would it not be my plan, and not ours?" "We weren't intending to go by exact words, Senator." Vera mustered up the courage to speak as her sister did, politely but firmly. "I was under the impression we'd agreed to halt any revolution among us for the betterment of the Mandalorian people." "While I fully respect and understand your position, Countesses, my duty is to the people of Mandalore." Daniselsen answered, standing up straight. "And I believe we've spent long enough making appeals to the hierarchy that are cast aside before they're even read. No matter to what scale, the King will only respond to real action." "Are you sure you're not planning a revolution?" Vera asked skeptically, but Idun took over. "So, you're saying you would send thousands of our people to their deaths to make a point to the King." She asked. "No." Daniselsen shook his head. "I would ally with millions of our people that are willing to sacrifice themselves to make this a better Kingdom." He paused. "Demands from the Chief Representative and Noble families will not change the King's perspective. And while I'm not actively organizing - or condoning - such a movement, that is what I see as necessary if we want to make a change." Vera felt herself becoming more and more angry as the conversation progressed. It was clear to her that Danielsen was preparing for a revolution, one that would kill who knew how many of their people and possibly lure other super powers (like the Orb Union itself) into the conflict. Even if she didn't know if any of that would happen, it felt like far too much of a risk to allow Danielsen to take. "You have a dangerous line of thinking, Alvor." She took a step forward threateningly. "Vera, that's enough." Idun put her arm in front of her younger sister, trying to calm her or at least subdue her. "We're going to talk this out. Not fight." Danielsen wisely remained quiet and had a concerned look on his face, not moving to make a smug comment or such. Contrary to his hopes, it didn't calm Vera down. "We've seen his history." She reminded her sister. "Countess," Daniselsen started cautiously, "I'm sorry for angering you. I think it's best if I leave. We can talk about this more another day." Vera took a deep breath, trying to see things from Daniselsen's point of view. After all, hadn't she thought the very same way no more than two months ago? She exhaled through her mouth and stepped back, nodding. "You're right. I'm sorry." Vera said to the Senator, stepping back. "It's quite alright." Daniselsen assured her. "I understand your concern." With a quiet nod, the Senator turned and began to slowly walk away from them. However, as Vera watched, her eyes widened as Danielsen's hand moved to the hilt of his saber, unmistakably preparing for a fight. Her heart raced as she watched him take the weapon from his belt, turning to face them no more than three feet away. "Oh, but before I leave." He said in a threatening tone, causing Vera to ignite her darksaber before Danielsen got the chance. Stepping in a position and preparing to attack. "Vera?!" Idun shouted in confusion. "What the hell are you doing?" "What do you mean?" Vera turned to her sister. "You didn't see that?" "See what?? All he's doing is asking a question!" This only left Vera confused, but she clearly saw Danielsen ready to attack. Even when she looked back at the senator, he looked the same way, though strangely not activating his own darksaber. And his expression was a mix of confusion, surprise, and fear. Regardless, Vera knew what she saw, even if Idun hadn't. He was about to make a killing move, a quickdraw slash to end the fight before it started. His political views didn't mean anything now, she was ready to defend herself. Of course the minute she drew her weapon, a Sentinel about a head taller than her stood between the Nobles and Daniselsen, who had taken a step back, though still ready to draw his own Varja. The Sentinel quickly activated his lightsaber pike, the yellow glow reflecting against his helmet. "Cease hostility." The sentinel, apparently female, demanded in an authoritative tone. By the time Vera saw that Daniselsen was ready to make a move, however, she attempted to move around the sentinel and strike the Senator down. The guard sidestepped into her way, moving the pike in a defensive position as Idun hurried to usher Danielsen away hoping it would diffuse the situation if he left. In anger and concern for what would happen if she let Danielsen carry out his plans, Vera moved out of the guard's way and began to sprint towards the Senator, jumping up and raising her sword in a downward slash. However, before she knew it, a second Sentinel moved between them and held up his pike, blocking the intense blow from hitting Danielsen but ending up with the saber slashing down the right side of his helmet. A small amount of sparks poured from the cut and onto the ground, the Sentinel dropping his pike and holding a hand to the side of his face. A third guard hurried to escort Daniselsen to safety away from the temple, and Vera sheathed her weapon in panic for the sentinel she'd struck by accident. Idun and the first guard knelt next to him as well, trying to see the severity of the wound. Already Vera felt a pang of guilt and anger at herself for losing her temper the way she had, attacking Daniselsen merely because she thought with no guarantee that he was going to start a revolution. But she felt even worse for injuring the sentinel, and it didn't improve once he finally moved his hand and she saw the cut in his helmet. A blue eye, unmistakably Agdar's looked back at her conveying intense betrayal and anger. There was a line of red where her saber had dragged, either from the weapon's heat or the sparks from his helmet burning his flesh. She could only wrap her arms around him and apologize again and again, sobbing into his shoulder as she begged for his forgiveness. She'd do anything to repair the damage she'd done. Three days later Agdar sat quietly and solemnly on his knees, his hands curled tightly into fists and resting on his lap. He'd been trying to meditate, as a Sentinel was supposed to. A Sentinel had to remain calm in order to observe his situation and understand what was going on. But he kept coming back to the same result. He turned around when he heard a knock on his door, getting to his feet as Vera entered. She pursed her lips and hurried forward to embrace him, noticing the already-fading burn mark across the right side of his face. He reluctantly wrapped a single arm around her, halfheartedly returning the gesture. "Agdar, I'm so sorry for hurting you." She said quietly, parting and looking back up to her son. "How's the burn?" "The burn isn't the problem." Agdar replied quietly. "Accidents happen. That's not the issue." "What is?" Vera took a gentle step back, an expression of concern on her face. "How could you go against everything you stood for like that?" Agdar asked, glancing at the rainy weather outside. "I put my trust in you, I believed that you were making the right call. So why did you attack the Senator?" "I saw him preparing to attack." She defended herself, but she wasn't so sure. "Four Sentinels and Aunt Idun say otherwise." He reminded her. "And if you're referring to his political plans, I would have expected you, after all you've said, to talk it out calmly. Without violence." "Yes, but I was just so... angry. I don't know what came over me." Vera said meekly, looking at her son who returned with a disappointed and betrayed glance. "That's the thing, Vera." He told her quietly. "We were moving to avoid all of that." Vera could only take a step back and look at her feet, ashamed of what she'd done. She was so angry, so afraid of Daniselsen and what he'd do, and she was sure that she saw him about to attack her. She'd never felt that way before in a situation such as this that should have been so easily diffusable. "I'm sorry." She apologized again. "About everything. The wound. What I did." Agdar paused in contemplation. "I think I need more time to meditate on this. It's just... confusing. It's just really confusing." He didn't mention the intense anger and betrayal he felt, he'd learned to keep that to himself. "Okay." Vera nodded, setting a reassuring hand on his shoulder and making her way out of the room. "I love you." He only nodded, standing there a moment after Vera had left before quietly returning to his pose of meditation, trying to expel all of this unwanted anger from his mind. As he did, Vera met Idun outside, who had a look of concern. "How is he?" She asked, hugging her little sister. "He's alright." Vera sighed. "Neither of us understand what came over me." "That wasn't like you." Idun agreed. "Well, you both need to work this out. I'll help you with it." "Thanks." Vera smiled and returned the hug thankfully. December 15, 2581 Skymning Tempel, Mandalore Bradford fell to the ground of the abandoned Temple of Dusk, clutching his wounded arm that had been cut through. His deactivated Varja clattered onto the ground next to him, not that he could use it in his condition. The tall and menacing form of Kylo Ren stood above him, holding his unstable saber to the veteran's throat. "Tell me where the remaining pockets of resistance are." Ren demanded, not even offering to spare the man's life if he complied. Neither of them believed he would do it. "The resistance is more important than the life of an old man." Bradford spat. "I knew the risks." Ren glanced instead to the collapsed Merrik, the other member of the apparently two-man strike team to find information in the Temple. He began to step over to the X-COM veteran, raising his Varja in preparation to stab downwards into the man's chest. "And your ally?" He asked. Bradford stopped for a moment, but only a moment. Even then, his voice was shaky. "He knows what he signed up for." Without hesitation, Ren stabbed right through Merrik's heart, ignoring the man's cry of pain and then eventual silence upon death. From here he could tell that Bradford had forced himself to look away. He'd been nice enough. The only reason he hadn't immediately interrogated the veteran with the force was due to the damage it might inflict on a useful mind, but he no longer cared. He wanted the information. The Sith Lord began to stride over to Bradford, dragging his darksaber against the ground, causing sparks to fly and the tile to melt from the heat. He began to lower himself to one knee in order to search through the man's mind, but out of nowhere he sensed a presence becoming closer and closer. Turning around, he saw for the first time in years that Vera was approaching rapidly, bringing her saber to attack. Wasting no time, Kylo moved to parry, deflecting her blow and attempting to counter with a stab. Vera sidestepped and then took several steps backwards to a safe distance, allowing a small pause in the battle. "You're back." He noted dryly, observing her stance. "Not for long." She replied in the same clipped tone, moving to attack again. Kylo cast her next attack to the side, but found himself having to dodge her following kick. He himself attempted to slash across her torso, but it was blocked with speed he hadn't experienced when fighting her before. And now he entirely understood what had happened. Vera had come to accept that her son was gone. She was no longer fighting the Sentinel Agdar Arendal, only the Sith Lord Kylo Ren. He didn't have the time to fight an entirely ready Vera Arendal - by the time he got back to Bradford, he would have committed suicide to retain the information and who knows how many more resistance members would be here. He only thrust his hand out, watching as Vera froze in place, her eyes widening in sudden fear and panic. Promptly turning on his heel to return to Bradford. Idun Arendal now stood defensively in front of the vetaran, attacking rapidly before Kylo could mentally kick himself for not noticing her presence. He did his best to block her continuous flurry of attacks, many of them stronger due to both the anger Idun felt and her enhanced prosthetic arm. Just when he was about to counterattack in an opening, he felt a strange disturbance in the force and loud footsteps behind him. He turned from his battle just in time to see Vera, freed from the paralysis, lunging and slashing across Ren's helmet. "Let's go!" She ordered Idun, ignoring Ren's shout of surprise and pain. "Eklund has the holocron, you take Bradford and get out of here!" Idun complied with Vera's order immediately, taking Bradford and slinging his uninjured arm across her shoulder for support. She quickly hurried him out of the temple and back to the Skyranger, hoping to come back and retrieve Merrik's body if there was time. As Idun helped Bradford to extraction, Vera took a moment to calm herself from the rapid events, taking a knee to retrieve Bradford's darksaber and make sure Ren didn't threaten their escape. Her heart skipped several beats and her eyes widened when she heard from behind her an eerily similar yet somewhat distorted voice croak, "Vera..." She turned around and got to her feet in an instant, igniting both her own and Bradford's darksabers. Kylo Ren was beginning to stand up from his injured position, then looking her in the eyes through the gap in his helmet. "...Vera." He said again in a more quiet and somber tone. There was a breach in Ren's helmet, showing part of his face. The years had not been kind. He appeared much more unkempt and unstable than before, with scars across the revealed cheek. But the worst part was his eye. It was not the innocent, trusting blue that she'd come to know and love, that she'd seen as she raised her baby boy. It was an intense, sickly, hateful Sith yellow. He was gone. "...Agdar." She whispered, tears welling up in her eyes. She'd been so set in her resolve to kill Kylo Ren, until she saw her son show himself. As harmed and corrupted as he was. Ren finally got to his feet, ignoring the burning on his face as he looked at his mother. She herself considered rapidly what she should do. Even as a Sentinel, Agdar had become more and more ruthless as time went on, something he saw as necessary. By now he would be too far-gone. But she had to try. "I can't lose you." Vera stepped forward carefully, lowering her weapons to neutral positions. "I won't lose you. Not this time." The one eye that she could see appeared to look down in contemplation, working through its confusion. His face seemed to become less angry and more tired for a moment, before his brow furrowed and he took a small step forward. "Then you will die." Said the haunting voice of Agdar and Kylo Ren, emphasized by the ignition of his darksaber. Vera could only blink back her tears, steeling herself one last time in what needed to be done. She held both her and Bradford's sabers in front of her once again, lunging at the Sith Lord with one pointed towards his chest, the other held to defend her own. She began to attack fiercely again and again, the same as Idun had before, but with more anger channeled into her fighting. Ren hurried to deflect one attack after the other, managing to keep himself in a good position due to each blow having less energy than that of a two-handed one or an enhanced. He began to prepare himself for a counterattack when she slowed down, but only found himself at the center of a firestorm. Unimaginable heat seared through his body, only lessened when he managed to shield himself with the force. Even then, he was flung back into one of the pillars of the temple, breaking clean through it as he plummeted to the floor. His darksaber, damaged possibly beyond repair from the flames, lay next to him and spewed sparks from its emitters. However, before Vera could approach to finish the job, the chunk of the ceiling that the pillar had been holding up began to fall above her. It was too late for her to shield herself from it, or cut it into pieces that wouldn't hurt her. She was taken by surprise and knocked out cold by the falling stone, surely going to suffer concussion damage for a long time if she made it out. The temple began to fall quiet, the remains becoming stable and both combatants unconscious. However, a robotic arm wrapped around Vera's waist and heaved her over the owner's shoulder. Idun carefully walked out of the temple with her sister in tow, having picked up both her and Bradford's darksabers. Eklund had only just enough time to retrieve Merrik's body and get to the Skyranger, the bay doors closing once all five were in safely and the dropship began to take off with no delay. "We should have finished off Ren." Eklund set Merrik's body down on the floor, looking to Idun. "I could have looked for him through the rubble." "And the reinforcements would have caught us." Idun ignored his complaint. "We'll get our chance." The two of them began to calm down from the rush of the battle, Idun looking to her unconscious sister. "I don't know if she'll ever be ready to fight again after all this." "I'm just impressed she fought as much as she has." Eklund remarked, moving slowly to the pilot's cabin of the Skyranger. "Yeah." Idun agreed quietly, buckling her sister into the seat for safety. She resolved to herself to be next to her until she woke up, and help her recover from whatever had happened between her and Ren. And in the meantime she had to consider if she wanted Vera to go back to the Orb Union where it was safe, or remain on Mandalore and fight a losing battle that hurt her more and more as it went on. Category:Blog posts